‘SNL’ Lets Dwayne Johnson Cut a Really Weird Wrestling Promo

As a former pro wrestler, Dwayne Johnson has plenty of experience cutting promos where he lays the verbal smackdown on his opponents. But what if he took things a little too far? That’s the premise of this delightful SNL sketch, which finds The Rock cutting the promo that crosses the line early on and never strops running.

The sketch finds Johnson playing “Koko WatchOut,” a wrestler straight out of the early ‘90s who is filming a promo with him number one in-the-ring rival Trashyard Mutt (Bobby Moynihan). While Mutt keeps things nice and traditional, issuing the normal threats and making big, crazy claims about how much hurt he’ll deal out in their upcoming match, Koko takes a different tactic. He begins revealing horrible secrets about Mutt’s life, revealed with the help of a private investigator. The intrusion of real life into the wrestling fantasy shakes everyone except the stone-faced emcee played by Taran Killam.

With Wrestlemania arriving less than 24 hours after this sketch airs, the timing for this thing couldn’t be more perfect. Johnson’s appeal has widened far beyond pro wrestling fans, but he’s always embraced the crazy world that created him. Even if you hate wrestling, there’s something undeniably charming about watching the man who was The Rock gently poke fun at himself and the WWE.